Pedal Strike

Back in my fag hag days, a fabulously gay friend once informed me:

“I only like to be friends with attractive people.”

I laughed in response, at least half in disbelief. The statement sounds ludicrous but I was also struck by its stark naked honesty. We all want to be friends with attractive, fashionable, interesting people, we just never say it out loud. Instead, we say things like “never judge a book by its cover blahblahblah” and make conscious efforts to be friendly to boring, unfashionable people. They deserve a chance, too, right? Besides, there aren’t enough attractive, fashionable, interesting people to go around, anyway [even if I’m using “attractive” here to include more than just physical beauty].

The problem when you do manage to be friends with someone who is attractive, fashionable, and interesting is that the stakes of the friendship are naturally raised. They’re interesting people, people! That means they give perfect gifts, say witty things, and have the kind of charisma that looks good in a burlap sack. By nature of being friends with these kinds of people, they [mistakenly?] believe that you’re effortlessly capable of the same.

Which is not true, in my case. That’s right; I’ve somehow managed to finagle my way into a best-friendship with a girl who is attractive, incredibly fashionable, and interesting. She gives the perfect gifts while saying witty things about current fashion trends. Meanwhile, I give my Mom a call one, sometimes two, times a year: “Mom, Lauren’s birthday is coming up. Can you get her something interesting from Tokyo?”

But despite my terrible gift-giving skills [or lack thereof], sometimes I see something that has both the lightbulb and the alarm going off over my head. It’s usually accompanied by this sweet, bubbly feeling that I’m going to bring back something perfect, myself.

This time it wasn’t for Lauren [sorry, Lauren], but a random stop by the bookstore resulted in a few awesome finds this past winter break. And when I saw the “Bicycle Custom” magazine, my brain screamed as I clenched the pages. The light bulb went on, the alarm was ringing full blast. Hello, Jason a.k.a. Superb Bicycle Mastermind a.k.a. D.J. Mayhem a.k.a. Most Hip Cyclist in Boston, I have the perfect gift for you from Tokyo.

The magazine is full of bike reviews, bike-related clothing, and street shots of people in Japan with their various bikes. Pictures of men and women with anything from a tricked-out fixed gear to a downhill mountain bike grace the pages. Plus, there was a full page on nari/furi, a Japanese clothing and bag company of which Superb is the only distributor in the area. Excited and giddy, I purchased it, already on that “perfect gift obtained” high. Yesterday afternoon I finally delivered it.

We ended up poring over it [the pages going left to right] before it got added to Superb’s fairly impressive collection of bike-related books on their coffee table. If you know your bikes, it’s a weird treasure trove [think vintage Kleins and some crazy mountain bikes]. And because Jason’s an awesome guy he even tweeted that anyone who stops by can take a peek.

Oh, and while you’re there, make sure to check out the array of Outlier pants, nari/furi bags, and the Swrve jackets that apparently every cyclist in the city is snatching up. Jason gave the Swrve Winter Softshell Trousers two thumbs up and for what it’s worth, they look really good, too [if only they made a women’s version!].

I ended up biking back home just as it started to snow, in my ratty, torn up jeans and coat that was decidedly not made for cycling. More homework awaited, but instead I ended up scouring Swrve’s site for a lot longer than was really necessary. I’m starting to really want that jacket. Thanks, Jason…like most all of my attractive, fashionable, interesting friends, you can be quite persuasive.

Tags:   bicycle custom · gifts · japan · nari/furi · outlier · superb bicycle · swrve clothing · tokyo3 Comments